Pantry’s club provides food to Isabella schoolchildren

Corey Micho - Morning SunDavid Collen hands out bags of food to volunteers at the Community Compassion Network's stationary pantry at Victory Church in Mount Pleasant on Feb. 7. He said that he helps because the pantry has helped him when he was homeless.

Corey Micho - Morning SunBags of food loaded into these carts in a warehouse inside Victory Church in Mount Pleasant are to be delivered to schoolchildren around Isabella County. Sponsors from the schools come and deliver the food to the students in various ways.

A group of volunteers in a warehouse attached to Victory Church gathered one day last week to fill shopping bags with food for schoolchildren who need them in Isabella County.

The 663 bags filled were delivered to the public schools as a part of the Community Compassion Network’s Nutrition Club.

The club’s goal is to ensure that students aren’t going without food to eat.

It works by allowing students in need to take home a bag of foods to their families twice a month.

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Foods given are meant to be easily prepared by the children, as working families may be too busy to cook complicated meals.

“We provide breakfast, lunch, a snack and some fruit juice for the kids,” Sarah Gilbert said.

Gilbert is on the board of directors for the Network, which operates food pantries in Isabella County, where 38 percent of households they serve are children under 18 years old.

“Some of the foods that are provided are affordable staples, such as ramen noodles and canned soup,” said volunteer and retired postal worker Pat Voss, “but we do also have healthy staples like oatmeal and fruit.”

The club’s leaders want to have the members take home one bag a week, but there are a few factors that prevent it.

“We only do this twice a month because of funding reasons and not wanting to put stress on the volunteer pool,” Gilbert said

The organization averages 400 volunteers per year, ranging from boy scouts to retired teachers living in Isabella,

“The club does get some funding from the schools in the form of penny drives and donations from parents and teachers,” Mount Pleasant Public School Nutrition Club Coordinator Kim Funnel said.

Both Gilbert and Funnel said there weren’t any other issues with getting the food to the schools.

Funnel said around 400 kids from the Mt. Pleasant area are part of the club.

With the Network able to get food from the Greater Lansing Food Bank, an affiliate of Feeding America, more than 11,000 food bags are provided for around $2 a bag.

The Greater Lansing Food Bank sources their food from retailers, the USDA and donations from the public.

The club covers 13 schools spanning Isabella County, ranging from elementary all the way to high school.

“The schools are good with working around the possible stigma that comes with programs like these,” Community Compassion Network Chair Peggy Burke said, “They have janitors put the bags in lockers or have the bags delivered to the classroom at a certain time.”

The club has been a part of the community for 6 years, starting with 200 students getting bags of food during the holidays.

Now the club serves around 650-700 bags per session, with around 70 percent going to Mt. Pleasant Public Schools. The other 30 percent goes to Shepherd and Beal City schools.